0
Swine Flu (H1N1/09)
The 2009 Pandemic Swine Flu, A-H1N1/09, the Type A influenza virus that was first identified in the early spring of 2009 in Mexico and then spread world wide to become a true Pandemic by June 2009. Different from other current seasonal strains of H1N1, and also not the same Swine Flu from prior epidemics or outbreaks (like in 1976), it is known by many different names in different places and settings, such as: H1N1, Novel H1N1, A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like virus, la grippe porcine, The Mexican Flu, la epidemia, Schweinegrippe, and SOIV (Swine Origin Influenza Virus).
1,816 Questions
How long can the Swine Flu virus survive in the air?
Most sources indicate that once in the air, the viruses would drop onto surfaces and not stay floating in the air for any length of time since they are carried in the air on respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes, and the weight of the droplets would cause them to fall. We know that some viruses can stay active 2 hours or longer* on surfaces like cafeteria tables, doorknobs, and desks. The time of viability of the viruses is affected greatly by the humidity in the location where they have been transferred to the surfaces. The drier the air, the shorter the time they are able to remain active and infect our cells to replicate.
From the CDC and Flu.Gov web pages:
The H1N1 virus is new. Research is being conducted to better understand its characteristics. Studies have shown that flu viruses can survive on hard surfaces and can infect a person for up to 2 to 8 hours after being left on items like cafeteria tables, doorknobs, and desks. Frequent handwashing will help you reduce the chance of getting contamination from these common surfaces.
The UK National Health Service (NHS) says :
"The flu virus can live on a hard surface for up to 24 hours, and a soft surface for around 20 minutes."
*Different time frames are found referenced about the length of time viruses can remain viable on surfaces outside a living host. It is also often quoted that they can "live" for 24 to 48 hours on nonporous environmental surfaces and less than 12 hours on porous surfaces before becoming inert. This is being studied for the specific length of time H1N1/09 can stay active outside a host but the results of those studies are not yet back.
See also the related question section below for the question asking if swine flu is "airborne".
What are the uses for viruses?
Viruses are used to kill cancer cells
Viruses are used for anti-ageing
Viruses are Used to Grow more energy efficient Batteries
How long do symptoms last from Influenza A?
Flu symptoms usually last 3 to 7 days, but sometimes up to 10 days. Cough from the flu could last longer than the other symptoms, perhaps up to 2 weeks. If cough continues beyond that time, you should contact your health care professional to be sure you do not have a secondary respiratory infection.
How does a virus get inside the cells it attacks?
The virus has proteins on its outer shell (capsid) that bind to the living host cell. Once the virus has attached to the cell, it enters the cell or inserts its DNA/RNA into the cell. When inside, the DNA/RNA instructs the cell to use the cell's resources to create more viruses. Viruses are not living, and do not have their own resources for creating new duplicates of themselves, which is why they must invade a living host's cells to replicate. After a while, when the host cell can no longer contain the amount of newly created viruses inside of it, the other protein that the virus carried on its capsid causes the cell to burst which releases the new viruses to go and attach to other cells in the host or perhaps to another host by contamination from the original host.
How can an epidemic be controlled?
Flu Shots, other than that you could try the last option, but for most of us it is completely excessive.
Maybe you have a really bad immune system:
Quarantine yourself
1) Live in a airtight room that filters all air that comes to you
The less human contact (direct contact) the better (you can still socialize, have visitors, and physical contact so long as your visitors wear air tight suits that prevent anything from getting into your sterile room). Have your room cleaned regularly.
2) All food must be treated before you consume it, and sent to you in a special canister All food must be irradiated or cooked in an oven at high heat, UV light on drinks before you eat it as a precaution.
3) Make sure you are very sanitary in all bathroom activities.
No, a flue is not a virus. A flue is a duct, pipe, or chimney for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, furnace, boiler, or smokestack. On the other hand, a virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism.
Why is everyone so concerned about their weight?
I think because it affects their physical appearance and secondly it also concerns in their health especially on women. When overweight, you are not comfortable in dressing up, you can not move faster and being overweight there is a tendency of having health problems like diabetes, heart problem, hypertension etc. Same when you are underweight, some problems also arises. Being in good shape makes you feel ok and healthy. So everyone is advisable to watch and be conscious always in your weight.
The Rudivirus(members of the family Rudiviridae) are unenveloped, stiff-rod-shaped viruses with linear dsDNA genomes, that infect hyperthermophilic archaea of the kingdom Crenarchaeota.[1][2] The study of crenarchaeal viruses is still incipient. Our knowledge of their biology and basic molecular processes, including infection, virus-host interactions, DNA replication and packaging, as well as transcription regulation, is somewhat limited.
Yes, ingesting rubbing alcohol can be toxic and may cause symptoms like dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and in severe cases, could lead to organ damage. It is recommended to seek medical attention immediately if you accidentally ingest rubbing alcohol.
Why koch's postulate cannot be applied to viruses?
Koch's postulates were developed to establish a causal relationship between a microorganism and a disease, based on criteria like pure culture and reproducing the disease in a healthy host. However, viruses lack some key characteristics required by Koch's postulates, such as being able to grow on artificial culture media and the ability to replicate outside of a host cell. Therefore, these postulates cannot be directly applied to viruses.
Does erythromycin affect human cells?
Yes, erythromycin can affect human cells by inhibiting protein synthesis in bacterial cells but can also affect human mitochondria due to their bacterial origin. This may lead to side effects in some individuals, especially at higher doses or with prolonged use.
Why does water freeze before alcohol?
The freezing point of alcohol is much lower (colder) than the freezing point of water. The freezing point of water is 0 °C, but the freezing point of ethanol is -114 °C.
See the Related Questions to the left for more information.
think of density
Why can't rubbing alcohol and oil mix?
Rubbing alcohol is a water-based compound, and oil is a nonpolar substance. Since water and oil have different polarities, they do not mix because oil molecules are hydrophobic and repel water molecules. This causes the two substances to stay separated when mixed together.
When rubbing alcohol and water mix does rubbing alcohol make water disappear?
No, rubbing alcohol does not make water disappear when they mix. Instead, rubbing alcohol and water form a uniform solution where the molecules of both substances are evenly distributed throughout the mixture.
How do you get a cold or flu on purpose?
Hopefully, you want to know how to do such a seemingly foolish thing for inclusion in a mystery novel that you are writing, but probably the most sure way would be to find a person who is about one day into feeling symptoms of the cold or flu and infect yourself by contact with them. Perhaps the most effective method of contact would be to take a swab from their nasal passages and immediately swab it inside your nose. If you were on a tight time table, you probably would repeat that several times a day for two days to be sure their mucus containing the virus has made contact with your mucous tissue.
For those who want to avoid getting the flu or a cold, see the related questions below for information about how it is spread and how it is prevented.
People are sensitive for various reasons, such as past experiences, personal insecurities, and emotional vulnerability. Each individual processes emotions differently, so what may seem minor to one person could be significant to another. Factors like upbringing, culture, and genetics also play a role in shaping a person's sensitivity levels.
How many Britains died from Swine Flu in 2009?
That total number is unknown, unfortunately. Only estimates are available, no complete confirmed counts have been able to be done for the entire pandemic period. The specifics and counts of cases are no longer being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) now that the pandemic has been declared over. Influenza cases are monitored, but specific H1N1/09 counts aren't available separately from other influenza reporting any longer.
The latest information about cases and deaths during 2009-2010 in the UK (separate British figures aren't available), is that there were 28,456 confirmed cases and 474deaths. This calculates to a mortality rate of those infected to be 0.02%, which is typical among all statistics. See more on mortality rate below:
Worldwide:
5 March 2010 -- As of 28 February 2010, According to the World Health Organization (WHO), worldwide more than 213 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 16455 deaths.
US:
3 March 2010 -- As of 12 February 2010, According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is estimated* that since the beginning of the pandemic, the US has had approximately 57 million cases of A-H1N1/09 Pandemic Swine Flu and approximately 11,690 resulting deaths. Based upon this, an estimate of the mortality rate in the US from the pandemic is 0.02% calculated by the 57 million cases and typical percent of deaths.
In comparison, the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) have estimated that with seasonal flu, "we see over 30 million cases in the United States. We see 200,000 hospitalizations and, on average, 36,000 deaths." (During the entire fall and winter flu season.) Based upon this, the average mortality rate of seasonal flu in the US would be 0.12 %.
*The CDC stopped keeping track of how many cases of H1N1 there were on an ongoing basis, due to incomplete counts in the reports. Most cases that are not complicated or requiring medical care aren't reported to the health departments and, of those, only a small number have had confirmation by laboratory testing. However, deaths from this infection have been being reported better and more have been confirmed, those numbers are more accurate. The CDC has developed a method of estimation of total counts based on the numbers of reported cases and deaths.
The statistics of this mortality rate variation between the seasonal flu and H1N1/09 swine flu, and other data gathered to date during the pandemic, are under study by epidemiologists. The death rate difference may be attributable to the fact that the especially vulnerable demographic group of the elderly (age 65 and older) suffers the majority of the cases and deaths from seasonal flu (because their weakened immune systems are unable to fight it off before their frail bodies must attempt to deal with the symptoms caused by another new strain of virus).
In contrast, the majority of cases of the pandemic swine flu are among the younger and healthier demographic groups, so that, except for the very young and those with underlying medical conditions, most are able to survive the disease. It is not fully understood yet why the elderly do not contract this virus subtype as easily as the typical seasonal virus subtypes, but speculation is that they may have acquired immunity through prior exposure to a similar virus strain sometime in their lives.
How many people in Israel have died of Swine Flu in 2011?
Most have stopped counting, or stopped publishing the information if they are counting, now that the pandemic is declared over and we are in the post pandemic phase. From the beginning of the epidemic in Mexico in April 2009 until November 2010, there were 4330 cases and 94 deaths in Israel.
Who was the youngest that died from Swine Flu?
Very young infants have died from the H1N1 influenza in the pandemic. A two month old infant in England was one of the early deaths in the pandemic in the UK. Even younger newborns also died of the infection world wide.
The first death of the disease in the US was a toddler from Mexico who died in the Children's Hospital in Houston, TX. Thankfully, although young children were among the groups with the largest number of cases of the flu, they were not the group with the largest number of deaths.
For example, 22 out of every 100,000 cases of H1N1 were children ages 0 to 4 compared to 26.7 per 100,000 cases in the age grouping of 5 -24 (which had the most cases). The lowest number of cases were in the over 65 age group, which is the reverse of the typical seasonal flu cases where the elderly are hit the hardest.
Worldwide, there have been many infant deaths from H1N1. Although accurate counts by age is only available for broader age groupings, for instance those age 0 - 4 years composed only 2% of the deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The age group with the largest number of deaths from the swine flu is the group ranging in age from 25 to 49, which suffered approximately 41% of the deaths. 16% of the deaths were among the 5 -24 age group, 24% were in the 50 - 64 age group and 9% were in the over 65 age group (another 9% was designated as "unknown" ages.)
Public education about infection control and disease prevention likely was a key factor in the reduced mortality and morbidity in this particular pandemic. Although the H1N1 virus, which spread rapidly, was less severe and this was also a big factor in the lower mortality rates compared to the seasonal flu.
Prevention is always the best plan, so be sure to get your flu vaccinations and have your children vaccinated as well.
How many people died from the H1N1 in Illinois?
As of February 5, 2010 there have been a cumulative total of 98 deaths from H1N1/09 in Illinois according to the Illinois state health department statistics.
Which continent has the greatest population of Swine Flu cases?
The continent with the most recorded cases of confirmed Swine Flu (A-H1N1/09) continues to the North American continent as of August 24, 2009. The countries in the North American continent that are driving that statistic are the United States with 43852 confirmed cases, Mexico with 19712 confirmed cases, and Canada with 11976 laboratory cases.
It has not been assigned to a Kingdom in the standard taxonomic classification system. Currently the taxonomy of viruses is less defined that of other and living organisms. Since viruses are really not living organisms, they do not have a Kingdom assigned.
Ordinarily (except for viruses) the hierarchy is:
Life
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
For viruses the hierarchy and classification usually begins at the Family level and continues down to the Serotype or subtype and strain, however, there are many different methods of classification with some more specific and some much less specific.
A-H1N1/09 Pandemic Influenza "Swine Flu of 2009" (an RNA virus genome)
Kingdom: Unassigned
Phylum: Unassigned
Class: Unassigned
Virus Groups (I - Vl): in some classification systems Influenza viruses fall in Group V, in other systems they are unassigned
Order: -virales or unassigned
Family: Viridae/Orthomyxoviridae
Genus: Influenzavirus A
Species: Influenza A virus
Serotype/Subtype: H1N1
Strain: A-H1N1/09-like virus
Do you capitalize the disease name 'Swine Flu'?
You don't capitalize swine flu. You can write H1N1, but since 'influenza' is not a proper noun, and neither is the word "swine", it is not written that way.
Is H1A1 the scientific name for Swine Flu?
No, A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like virus is the scientific name. It is more commonly called A-H1N1/09. See the related question below for more detail on the many names world wide for this influenza.
What are the scientific name and other names for the H1N1-09 swine influenza?
A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like virus is the name of the specific strain that is used to create the vaccines for the Pandemic A-H1N1/09 flu. See below for details on this scientific nomenclature.
One of the more commonly used original names for this pandemic flu was Influenza A, Novel H1N1 Virus (formerly 2009 Swine Flu) and was the name that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) coined and used until they conformed with the World Health Organization (WHO) and began calling it H1N1/09 Pandemic swine flu.
It began being called the Pandemic H1N1/09 Virus by WHO in July 2009 and this is the more commonly used name in the US. And many scientific papers are using H1N1pdm (pdm to represent Pandemic).
It is an Influenza Virus type A, H1N1 is the subtype. As mentioned above, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization have called it Influenza A, Novel H1N1 Virus. You may also see it written as the "Novel H1N1 Influenza virus", or "Novel Influenza A, H1N1 virus."
What does the H1N1 part mean?:
These Type A viruses have a protein coating that surrounds them, called a capsid. The surface proteins making up the capsid in this virus strain are haemagglutinin and neuraminidase. These surface proteins are the proteins that can be changed when viruses mutate into new forms allowing them to attack the host cells in different ways and to evade the immunological system of the host.
In the naming convention of viruses, the protein classifications become part of the name as in H1N1; H for the haemagglutinin and N for the neuraminidase. There are different subtypes of viruses using the H and N nomenclature, for example the H5N1 subtype is the Avian (Bird) Flu.
Why change from Swine Flu?:
From a July 7, 2009 Press Briefing by World Health Organization's Dr. Fukuda, who said that WHO has decided to call Influenza A, Novel H1N1: Pandemic H1N1/09 Virus (although, as of early August 2009 this name is not yet being consistently used).
"As you know, since the emergence of the pandemic, the name of the virus has been a difficult issue for many reasons. In the past, we have seen how the naming of viruses by location can stigmatize those locations and we have also seen in this and in other episodes where associating the virus with one animal species or another, can really cause both anxiety and then fears about food and in this particular instance, about pork.
So, in recognition of those issues, what WHO, FAO and OIE did, actually some weeks ago, was to get together several of the experts who work in these organizations and with many of the laboratory experts who work with these organizations, and then we had a meeting - a virtual meeting - in which these issues were discussed and one of the things that we wanted to do was make sure that any naming of the virus was scientifically accurate but also would avoid any kind of adverse reactions to the name or to minimize those as much as possible. Based on those discussions, what the experts decided, calling this a pandemic H1N1/09 virus was a good way to distinguish it from the current seasonal H1N1 viruses and to do so, in a way which was scientifically sound, but also would avoid some of the stigma associated with other options."
The name in other countries:
In some countries they still call it Pig Flu, but usually when a virus is called Pig Flu it is in reference to the type of flu that hogs get, not the types that humans get such as the Novel H1N1/09 influenza (2009 Swine Flu). In some places around the world it is also still called the "Mexican Flu", and in France it is la grippe porcine. It is called Schweinegrippe in Germany, Mexican Flu in the Netherlands, SOIV (Swine Origin Influenza Virus) or H1N1-SOIV in Canada, and la epidemia in Mexico. In Turkey it is called "Domuz Gribi" which means "Pink ill". Other common names are Swine influenza, hog flu, pig flu, swine influenza virus (SIV), and H1N1.
Why Swine Flu in the first place?:
The original swine flu is known as influenza type A, H1N1. The new H1N1/09 Pandemic swine flu originated from a pig who had the original/normal pig flu and then this same pig caught the bird flu H5N1. These viruses combined to make a new and bad case of the flu, and this pig gave it to other pigs. Eventually, one of the pigs infected with the flu that was a combination of bird flu and pig flu, then caught the human flu, which "mixed together" in that pig with the other two types of viruses making an even worse case of the flu with all three types of genetic material. This pig spread that new "triple reassortant" virus to more pigs. When pigs with the triple reassortant virus came in close contact with a human, probably a farm worker, and the human caught this bad flu, from then on it has been spreading around the world. The name has stuck and so it is still called the Swine Flu, Swine Influenza, Hog Flu, and Pig Flu in some places to the chagrin of the Pork Producers Association. See the related question below about what caused the pandemic swine flu for more detail on how the reassortant process created the new strain of pandemic flu.
NomenclatureThe naming convention for virus strains such as the one used to produce the pandemic A-H1N1/09 vaccine [ A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)v-like virus ] is explained below. Using this example of a name of a specific viral subtype/strain: A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virusA = Type A influenza. There are three types of influenza: A, B, and C.CALIFORNIA = The location the strain was first identified.
7 = The strain identification number.
2009 = The year the strain was identified.
H1N1 = The antigenic characterization of the H and N proteins.
[Antigenic characterization is a method used to describe influenza proteins neuraminidase (N) and hemagglutinnin (H) and how they have changed.]
(See "What Caused the 2009 Swine Flu" in related questions below.)
